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Changing Worlds Essay: Senior Freshmen
‘Virtual Water’ & Water Foot Print
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Q. What is meant by the terms
‘Virtual Water’
and
Water Footprint
and how are they determined? Assess the importanceof these concepts in assisting our understanding of patterns of water use at a global scale.
This essay is going to look at the concepts of „„Virtual Water‟‟ and the „Water Foot Print‟
and how these term
s or concepts are determined. It will explain what the term „„Virtual Water‟‟and “Water Foot Print” mean both in a domestic form and in an industrial form. What this studywill also look at, is how much water people in the „Developed World‟ rely on to liv
e and how
much water people in the „developing world‟ or „Third World‟ rely on; and will pose the
question as to why people in the developed world use so much water, and how people in the
„Third World‟ can survive with so little. This essay will also discu
ss the recent loss of watersupply to the majority of Ireland during the month of January 2010 following the heavy snow falland how the people who had no water coped. It will specifically look at the capital of Ireland
–
Dublin; as many parts of Dublin still have disrupted or limited supplies of water and are forecastto be in that predicament for the next four to six weeks.Which will lead to the conclusion of whypeople use so much water, when it is clear they can - and in fact many people do, survive with a
fraction of water used in today‟s‟ world of water guzzlers; or water wasters who are raping this
planet of its most essential and purest resource as the case may be.
The term „„Virtual Water‟‟ was coined in 1993 by the scientist „John Anthony Allan‟ a
professor in King‟s College, London. Professor Allan was a researcher in the field of „water analysis and consumption‟; he was awarded for his work and the research carried out on the
concepts of
„Virtual Water‟ and in 2008
he was named the winner of the much acclaimed
“Innovator Awarded 2008 Stockholm Water Prize” for his concept of „„Virtual Water‟‟
(S.I.W.I.Stolholm International Water Institute). Professor Allan started to research the concept of
„Virtual Water‟ after one of his
colleagues was very displeased with the amount of water dessertcountries were using to grow citrus fruits for export and sale to the European Union. ProfessorAllen then started to question the amount of water used in various production processes. He
stated that “people do not only consume water when they drink it or take a shower” This led tothe concept of „„Virtual Water‟‟ being introduced
-
Allen states that “„Virtual Water‟ is defined
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as the volume of water required to produce a commodity or service” (Allen; 1993). This t
hinkingconcept is important for understanding how much water a product actually needs to be produced
or grown; for example people whom drink coffee use more „Virtual Water‟ in one spoon full of
ground coffee beans than the actual hot water it takes to mix with the beans. Taking the size of
an average cup to hold 300mls of water, the actual water used including „Virtual Water‟ is
around 140 liters of water for that one cup; or the fact a hamburger used over 2,400 liters of
„„Virtual Water‟‟.
(This will be explained in greater detail in the next couple of paragraphs.)
According to A.Y. Hoekstra there are two approaches for „„Virtual Water‟‟. One
approach dealing with the production of commodities and services the other dealing the use pointof view. The firs
t approach “quantifies „Virtual Water‟ as the real water used for the productionof the commodity”
(Chapagain; 2006). This is production site specific, it depends on location,time of production and the amount of water avaible at the time of production
–
it is all about
water usage effeciency. The second defination or approach is calculating “how munch water „would‟ have been needed to produced the good or commodity where it is being consuimed;therefore it is „use site specific‟”.(Chapagain; 2006)
. According to Hydro-geographer Ashok
Chapagain a problem arises when looking at the second definition if “the product is used in acountry where it cannot be produced itself due to climate conditions for example”. This opened
up a whole host of questions and thoughts by many scientists and geographers and made the
concepts of „Virtual Water‟ a whole lot more complicated, in fact so much so that in 2003„Virtual Water‟ was considered “neither constant in space nor in time” (Renault; 2003).
The concepts, however, of
„„Virtual Water‟‟ are still important as it shows geographers
and scientists how much water was really used in the production of a product, which candetermine the environmental affect/damage of making that product on the environment. Thesecond approach
to „„Virtual Water‟‟ can help geographers and scientists how much water a
country can save by importing commodities, instead of producing them domestically(Chapagain; 2006).When talking about water it is important to state that there are three main categories of water and these are put into groups of colour; Green, Blue and Grey. When calculating the
formulas for „Virtual Water‟ usage it is important to take these categories into account as some
of the water used is recycled naturally and some of the water used is contaminated, this is not
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What is meant by the terms ‘Virtual Water’ and Water Footprint and how are they determined? Assess the importance of these concepts in assisting our understanding of patterns of water use at a global scale.
An essay for the 2012 Undergraduate Awards Competition by John May. Originally submitted for TSM Geography at None, with lecturer Dr. David Drew in the category of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences
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